One Day Sculpture is a series of temporary public artworks by leading New Zealand-based and international artists. It is first event of its kind to happen, both locally and internationally.
The series, which runs until June 2009, takes place across five cities in New Zealand and involves the creation of more than 20 new artworks, each of which will last no longer than 24 hours. The one-day artworks will all be located in the public domain - away from conventional galleries or museums - and occur within their own discrete 24-hour period. One Day Sculpture is a series of temporary public artworks by leading New Zealand-based and international artists. It is first event of its kind to happen, both locally and internationally.
The series, which runs until June 2009, takes place across five cities in New Zealand and involves the creation of more than 20 new artworks, each of which will last no longer than 24 hours. The one-day artworks will all be located in the public domain - away from conventional galleries or museums - and occur within their own discrete 24-hour period.Encompassing performance, installation, object-based sculpture and social events, One Day Sculpture sets out to challenge conventional ideas about public sculpture, acknowledging that temporary artworks have the capacity to excite and engage people's imaginations in a unique way - and to live on in collective memory.
Wellington-based artist Maddie Leach commences the series on 28th August by encouraging us to seek out a solitary boatshed at Breaker Bay, from which to watch in anticipation for what has been forecast as the Capital's most dramatic winter storm. Next up is a collaborative project from emerging artists Nick Austin and Kate Newby, located in Auckland's Western Park/Rimutahi on 30th August. Then, on 31st August Kah Bee Chow unveils her commemorative garden to a Chinese immigrant who was murdered in Wellington's old Chinatown more than 100 years ago. [For further information on the artworks, see pages 3-4].
"These first three artworks are an indication of the extraordinary experiences to follow over the course of the One Day Sculpture series. They encourage us to venture into unfamiliar territories or to sense our familiar surroundings anew, suggesting the potential of temporary public art to change something of the status quo and engage us more deeply in the spaces we inhabit," says Curatorial Director of the series Claire Doherty.
One Day Sculpture is devised by Massey University's College of Creative Arts, School of Fine Arts, Litmus Research Initiative and Claire Doherty, UK-based curator, Director of Situations (www.situations.org.uk) and Massey University Curatorial Fellow. The series is realised in partnership with twelve leading art galleries and organisations throughout New Zealand.
FUTURE PROJECTS, INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS ANNOUNCED
One Day Sculpture continues in spring with projects by artists Superflex (Denmark) and Rirkrit Tiravanija (Argentina/US/Germany/Thailand) for ARTSPACE, Auckland; Amy Howden-Chapman (New Zealand) for City Gallery Wellington; and Liz Allan (New Zealand) for Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Taranaki.
Another major international artist Paola Pivi (Italy/Alaska), has also recently been added to the impressive line-up for the series, which already boasts New Zealanders Michael Parekowhai, Billy Apple and Bekah Carran, alongside some of the pre-eminent international artists working today including Thomas Hirschhorn (Switzerland/France) and Javier Tellez (Venezuela/New York).
MADDIE LEACH, PERIGEE #11
Boatshed 805, Opposite 171 Breaker Bay Rd, Breaker Bay, Wellington
Thursday 28 August, Midnight-Midnight
Commissioned By Litmus, Massey University
Curated By Claire Doherty
First in the One Day Sculpture series is Wellington artist Maddie Leach (commissioned by Massey University's Litmus Research Initiative), whose new artwork Perigee #11 explores our fascination with meteorological predictions and daily weather.
On 28th August 2008, a storm is predicted over Wellington. Using a long-range weather forecasting system developed by mathematician Ken Ring, Leach has pinpointed a winter's day in which downpours, hail, wind and rain are expected to descend upon the city. Anticipation for the storm is built by the artist through a series of forecasts (placed in the local daily newspaper and on promotional cards) distributed prior to the notable day of the project. On the day itself we are encouraged to seek out a boatshed at Breaker Bay, from which to watch in anticipation over Cook Strait.
A perigee is when the moon is closest to the earth each month, and according to Ring, this is when significant changes in weather patterns occur. Will he be right? Does it matter? Go along at any stage of the day or night, check out the weather, see who else is there and enjoy the privileged view of Cook Strait and the rugged South Coast the artist enjoys daily from her window.
Curator Claire Doherty comments that "Leach's work has always been concerned with potentiality. What will it feel like to seek out the boatshed at 3am awaiting a storm? Or will you battle against the winds with a group of friends at sundown? When you look out across the sea from the shed, will you solemnly recall the 1968 Wahine Disaster or will the conversation be occupied with the daily drizzle? Or will you spend the afternoon in the sunshine wondering what it must feel like to be hauled up in a shed awaiting a storm?"
Adapted as part-viewing platform, part-shelter, the shed is the most obviously sculptural aspect of Leach's project, occurring as a temporary public sculpture on Wellington's coastal road, but of course it is only one aspect of this artwork. Perigee #11 occurs as rumour, as text, as topic of conversation, as quest, and as a social space, always slightly out of our grasp, occurring always in the future and then in the past.
NICK AUSTIN & KATE NEWBY, HOLD STILL
Western Park, Ponsonby, Auckland
Saturday 30 August, 9am-9pm
Commissioned by Cuckoo
Next up is a collaborative project from emerging Auckland artists Nick Austin & Kate Newby, commissioned by Cuckoo. Their work, Hold Still, will be located in Auckland's Western Park / Rimutahi, between Ponsonby Road and Freemans Bay.
The project's curator Jon Bywater remarks "If there are any places in the city that encourage you to notice what's around you in a contemplative way, a public park is one."
Hold Still will exist as an intriguing intervention in the park from morning until evening for one of the last days of winter. Individually known for quietly compelling works, the artists will use sculpture and performance to underscore and to skew the idea of a view, the ways of looking around us that we're used to, and so how we make sense of our surroundings.
KAH BEE CHOW, GOLDEN SLUMBERS
Backyard Of 10 Haining St, Wellington
Sunday 31 August, 9am-9pm
Commissioned By Enjoy Public Art Gallery
Curated By Paula Booker, paula@enjoy.org.nz
Back in Wellington, three days after Maddie Leach launches the series, Auckland artist Kah Bee Chow (commissioned by Enjoy Public Art Gallery) will build a temporary garden at 10 Haining Street, commemorating a Chinese immigrant who was murdered in Wellington's old Chinatown more than 100 years ago.
"Once regarded at the most notorious slum area in New Zealand," Wellington historian Lynette Shum notes, "Haining Street today is an industrial area that bears little indication of its sensationalist past." As the centre of Wellington's Chinatown from the late 1800s-1940s, the street also bore witness to the one of the most violent episodes in Chinese New Zealand history, when Englishman Lionel Terry shot dead Joe Kum Yung outside number 13 in 1905 as a protest against Chinese immigration into the country. Kah Bee Chow's One Day Sculpture project, Golden Slumbers, is sited opposite this spot at number 10 Haining Street.
Chow, like Yung, is also a first-generation migrant to New Zealand. "We are separated by 100 years but Joe and I, as first-generation immigrants to New Zealand, perhaps shared in common the impossible spectacular projected fantasies onto this land that drew us here," she says.
The artist undertook extensive research and discussions with the Haining Street and Chinese communities in preparation for this work, which examines the perseverance of cultural memory and creates an installation that is "partly conceived as an imagined narrative of Joe Kum Yung's afterlife".
"Joe was a miner, destitute, alone at the time of his death with long-abandoned dreams of the elusive 'Sum Gum Saan', a new gold mountain, the faded promise of the Otago goldfields," Chow says.
More information
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One Day Sculpture is a Massey University College of Creative Arts, School of Fine Arts, Litmus Research Initiative
Generously supported by Massey University College of Creative Arts, Wellington City Council Public Art Fund, Creative New Zealand, Massey Foundation and the Chartwell Trust
Kah Bee Chow: Golden Slumbers is also supported by Asia New Zealand
21/08/08